in staten island where at least 19 people were killed and hundreds of homes destroyed, residents are saying they are not getting the help they need. >> every single person on this block lost everything. you need to come here and help us. we need assistance. please. >> i think that we're not getting the attention because we are, you know, we are a working-class neighborhood and fend for yourself thing. >> yesterday the staten island borough president called the response a disgrace. homeland security secretary janet napolitano will visit the borrow and the red cross is sending ten trucks for release. might have eclipsed what could have been a hurdle for president obama. the october unemployment report. as it turns out, last month was a strong one for job creation. the labor department said 171,000 jobs were added last month, the unemployment rate ticked to 7.9%, but remained under 8% which is key for the president. in a move that surprised exactly

no one, both campaigns tried to spin the news this morning. governor romney said this in wisconsin. >> he said he was going to lower the unemployment rate down to 5.2%. today we learned it's 7.9%, that's 9 million jobs short of what he promised. >> speaking in ohio the president highlighted the spike in job creation. >> and today our businesses have created nearly 5.5 million new jobs and this morning we learned that companies hired more workers in october than at any time in the last eight months. >> joining us now, from washington, the man with all the answers, cnbc's amman jabbers. what's your assessment of this jobs report? >> it's definitely a strong jobs report, stronger than expected consensus was about 125,000 jobs, we saw 171,000. that was a surprise to the

upside. in the morning wall street liked that, the dow futures up on that news, but politically i think the interesting thing here is that all the conspiracy theorists are gone back in their holes today, we haven't heard from all those folks and part of the reason because there's something in here for everybody. the republicans are saying this isn't good enough and the economy is at a standstill. democrats are saying look, we want to build on the progress that we're making. and so it is slow, but steady progress here and i think you have to look at some of the internal numbers here, 500,000 new people joined the labor force in the last month and look at these revisions over the previous months, in august, they revised from 142,000 jobs gained to 192,000 jobs gained. in september revised from 114,000 to 148,000 jobs gained. so big increases in the past month and that reflects a trend of jobs increasing in this country across the board. >> as a dorky bls question for

you, which is the revision of these numbers, first of all, that's a pretty significant revision in august from 142 to 192,000 jobs. and even september, 114,000 to 148,000 jobs. are those kind of revisions traditional? i mean is that usually what happens when be we look at -- we're scrutinizing these numbers in a way we wouldn't be in 2011 and 2010 but are jumps like that normal? >> they are. you see revisions as a standard course of action at bls. they go through an increase or decrease previous months. we see that throughout the year. you're right, this is the single most important jobs number in human history today because of the way it falls just before the election so everyone is paying a lot more attention to this one than maybe ever before. but yeah this is how the bls does its work. part of the confusion we saw last time when you had the head-scratching moment of people saying wait a second how come the unemployment rate has dropped so much. a lot of misinformation and misunderstanding about how the

bls calculates these numbers and that's part of why people who are new come and say that doesn't make sense on its face. >> it's interesting, ben, we were talking last time these numbers came out, a few conspiracy theorists who took to twitter to talk about how bls is a front socialist front for the obama re-elect campaign. it's weird that a socialist front for the obama campaign would be so off in their numbers prior months. if you unpack the numbers, what's interesting is, in different sectors there is something for everyone. professional business services and increase of 51,000 jobs, health care 31,000, retail, 36,000, except for government, which is a decrease of 13,000 jobs. >> right. >> of course the republicans have been banging this drum about, you know, this -- how too much money has been pumped into government, government doesn't create jobs. government has been streamlined looks like in the last month. >> it has. we've seen government jobs come down consistently over the last several months. something for everyone and what the romney campaign should

probably be pointing to is not the unemployment rate going up, it went up for a good reason because people are looking for jobs, what they should be looking at are wages which are stagnant and quality of jobs being created. these are industry, you know, jobs in service industry, some of the health care jobs aren't that great. a little more nuanced argument to make but hard for the talking points on the final day of campaigning. the 171 number is good for problem. the only problem if unemployment had gone back above 8%. this is not there. it's a wash pretty much. >> we've talked a lot about this day and teed up as this red day, red mark, red flag day in the calendar and everyone was going to sort of decide on who they were going to vote for based on this number. frank, it kind of is more about the mood, isn't it? just the scent rather than a number. >> it's also important to note that this day comes at the end of a week that we couldn't have predicted. we have seen -- we have seen chris christie lock president obama in a kind of political bear hug, thes like of which -- >> i think someone got him a --

those two a room. you saw mayor bloomberg come out and endorse president obama. so much had happened this week before we got to the jobs report that i think it diminishes how much attention people will be paying to the jobs report. >> karen, you're master strategist here. >> oh. >> in terms of -- we talk about what could romney have done. you know, certainly they knew this number was coming out, at the same time as frank very, you know, validly points out this week has not been anything under their control. romney started out the week with a softer tone, talking about come together on november 7th, thats has been thrown out the window and back these factually questionable ads they're running in ohio. >> yes. >> and very sharpened rhetoric around the president because this is a fight to the last. >> it's interesting. as i was watching romney today i was thinking his argument, his gloom and doom argument, is sounding increasingly sort of out of touch because the job numbers, it's not perfect, but it's better and we're moving in the right direction.

in terms of the confidence argument president obama has had a stellar week so he can't lead, he's in over his head, be you can't make that argument. so increasingly romney looks small and petty and again, these headlines coming out of ohio, he's lying, looks like desperation and trying to run down the clock to get to election day in the same way he was in the republican primary. he's not taking questions. won't be doing more interviews. i thought it was -- it's an odd strategy to go back to the attack message at a time when the numbers that people are seeing and i think the overall mood, that's not consistent with what people are feeling. >> can you imagine, if romney actually got on the stump and today and said, not so bad numbers. >> right. >> not so bad. kind of channeling his inner christy. that is never going to happen as he's trying to win the presidency, but he's -- for a minute, ari, the middle of the road guy thing seemed to be working for him, although the

longer it goes on the more shamelessly transparent that it seems especially when barbs are thrown with regularity. he did say we are the richest country in the world, but we have one out of six people living in poverty. a point martin luther king made, a point to have wes cornell -- cornell wes and tavis smiley have made. >> smily being the love child. >> barack/christie. >> but they've said that. a lot of poverty advocates talked about that missing from the trail and it's resonate with the clip you made someone in a poor neighborhood hit the hardest that have the least infrastructure to withstand a storm, and then are also often the areas that feel left out from all kinds of government assistance, right? mitt romney is right to raise poverty this week. what's the problem? >> what's the problem? the problem is, that he's got a lot of plans that would balance the budget and do other bad

things on the backs of poor people, right? so the problem isn't at this point, is he saying anything that is broadly appealing or moderate, it's whether people believe it. >> amman, we talk about the numbers here and the economy. it is amazing to me how in so far as there's been a perfect storm in terms of political optics for the president, this week began with him taking on the concerns of those who had been made victims by the storm, helping out those in need. that has dovetailed with the message on the stomach where he's making the fairness argument, the economic argument for his policies wrapped together in a seamless manner. >> yeah. you don't want to be too crass but hurricane sandy has been a political opportunity for the president and to act presidential, to be presidential, and then the embrace by chris christie who gave the keynote speech against him at the republican convention, obviously, sort of a turning point in maybe the last turning point in this election and if i could, also just throw out one other economic stat that we should be paying attention to, we focus on this jobs report

but also important is consumer confidence and that has been increasing dramatically, look at august, september and now october, consumer confidence is going straight up. and that's sort of a measure of how people feel about the economy, how things are doing. they're willing to spend again. that probably benefits the president. there's sort of an economic era of good feeling out there right now that's beginning to creep into the electorate. that's probably good for president obama as well. so some good news for the president going into this. but romney just gave a speech and he said four more days, four more days. republicans are fired up too going into tuesday. >> amman, the consumer confidence numbers have to parallel the right track -- they should parallel the right track/wrong track numbers, shouldn't they? >> you would think, unless there's a major debacle of foreign affairs, war or other things going on. consumer confidence and right track/wrong track would have something to do with each other because it's the economy stupid is the old line. but what we've seen in consumer confidence it has gone up and you've seen that reflected in other things like auto sales which in recent months have been

relatively strong. all of that indicates that the consumer feels, you know, things are good, a little bit more confident about their stability of their job, the likelihood they're going to get laid off is probably less. feel like they can make a major purchase like a car or something else. >> amman has been reading his morning money. >> no, no, no. i never read morning money. >> bro fest. >> i would add one point and it's all correct, one thing driving the consumer confidence and increased good feelings on the part of consumers which would go into the right track/wrong track is house prices, up according to case-shiller up five months in a row and what people don't see there, the price of their home going down anymore, it's going up, they feel better, more wealthy, buy stuff and that's helpful to the president right now. >> i have to -- we have to leave it there. i want to ask you something and see what your thoughts are on this. >> okay. >> what do people say before the phrase, it's the economy stupid, was invented? there had to be something. we've been saying it for the

better part of a decade now. >> carville invented it in '92, so goes back that far. and before that, i don't know what they said. i wasn't covering national politics. >> they just didn't know what it was. and then carville came from the moup tapes and said it's -- mountains and said it's the economy. >> now we all read morning mun. >> thank you to cnbc's amman jabbers for all the answers. >> coming up, after months of campaigning had hundreds of stump speeches four debates and two conventions this race may come down to a tale of the tape, his honor versus the donald. the boss, versus ricky skaggs. we will compare and contrast when "new york" magazine jonathan chaits joins us next on "now." now it's stirred.

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with less than 100 hours until the presidential election, the candidates have booked travel to make their closing arguments. romney is in wisconsin today and over the next three days, will head to ohio, new hampshire, colorado, iowa, virginia, and pennsylvania. paul ryan will also be in pennsylvania on sunday trying to bring the state back into play before tuesday. meanwhile, president obama will spend the entire day today in ohio. he'll hit wisconsin, iowa, virginia, new hampshire, florida and colorado in the coming days. the president will close his campaign by calling on two of his most bold-faced surrogates, jay-z and bruce springsteen. they will perform in ohio on monday. but if team o has the boss to close the deal romney land has

meat loaf and ricky skaggs. >> i want to thank ricky skrags -- skrugs rather -- skrags, can't get it right -- for entertaining. >> ricky skaggs. batting for the president, sober minded political figures including colin powell and michael bloomberg and for romney, sober minded political figures including the donald. that said both candidates have tinseltown on their side. for obama, eva longoria, george clooney, sarah jessica parker. and for mitt romney, clint eastwood and mr. burns. >> mitt strapped his mutt to the roof of the car for a 350 mile jaunt. we will explain why mitt is once again [ inaudible ]. what's that? you like being tied to the roof of the car? because it allowed you to see more of the great land of ours and its wonderful natural resources ripe for drilling and

mining and exploiting? >> the lineup may be set, but which team will more americans choose. joining us from washington, is new york magazine's jonathan chaits. we love to give you a bump in with simpson sound because nothing feels more commitly weighty -- politically weighty. >> a launching pad to get on to the simpsons. that's my career plan. >> i see it. someone call. jonathan, you have made the case for the president and against mitt romney and the pages and annals of "new york" magazine and this week has seen other folks making the case in so far as there are new endorsements colin powell and yesterday michael bloomberg. is it even worth discussing who has the stronger bench? >> the stronger bench. yeah, you know, you didn't mention the economists came out for obama. that was a little interesting. of course you also had the des moines register endorse obama --

i'm sorry endorse romney and a lot was made of that. you know, with bloomberg, i thought that was sort of an interesting endorsement because he's basically torn between the fact that he personally despises obama according to all reports but agrees with him on every policy issue except the fact that he wishes obama would be more ob see kwees you to rich people. he managed to like -- like reconcile i agree with him on everything politically but don't like him and said all right i'll support him. >> i don't think being more ob see kwees you to rich people was in the endorsement but frank, i ask you, as a new york kingpin, the bloomberg endorsement was interesting and we'll focus on the climate change piece a little bit later. a lot of other stuff in that endorsement including -- >> the most qualified endorsement i've read. he went through all the problems he has with the president but in the end he said there's just a couple issues where the president is on the right side,

right side of gay marriage, choice and climate change. i thought it was fascinating reading to boil it down to that. three things we know about these two guys and i'm going with the other guy. >> it felt like i'm not going to shoot you in the heart, i'll shoot you in the arm and that's an endorsement. wasn't exactly a glowing endorsement necessarily. >> but it was on the flip side a pretty damming nonendorsement of mitt romney. as you talk about the cases to be made for each man, bloomberg singles out the fact that mitt romney would have been the one he could have voted for in 1994 or 2002 but sold all of his values up the river and he does sort of attack the president on not being more centrist, finding greater bipartisan consensus on things, resorting to redistribution which i guess is not being ob see kwees you enough to rich people in layman's terms. >> right. >> you talk about your sort of why you like the president, why he's your man for 2012, and i'll read an excerpt to you because i find that weird and uncomfortable and good for

conversation. to quote you, what makes the agenda radical -- take it away. >> i couldn't have said it better myself. >> no but you do lay the case that fact that the president has been ideologically consistent, shown the temperament of someone who has true leadership qualities, refute something of the things that mayor bloomberg has put out there. >> that's right. and i think i also tried to discuss how he dealt with the republican opposition which was so manic and deliberately decided at the outset of his presidency, that to give him bipartisan cover would make him popular and with would help him get re-elected and close off their want avenue for regaining power which was absolutely true. and what you're seeing with a

lot of these endorsements, is people trying to grapple with this reality. you know, be you have bloomberg upset that obama was unable to get the republicans to sign on to a strategy which would be signing their own doom. whereas the "des moines register" essentially blamed obama for the republican strategy and then sort of indulged the fantasy that the mitt that you see is not the real mitt it's a secret mitt is the real mitt that existed in massachusetts long before. >> even if you look at mitt romney's record in massachusetts it doesn't exactly speak to bipartisan consensus, used the line item veto, 750, 800 times. the myth making around his middle of the roadness has been extraordinary. >> right. >> you're right. a big law on health care and not much else. but that was a big thing. >> jonathan chaits, i'm going to echo him but not quote from him. if you look on facebook, jonathan endorsed an argument really took off. i think that's partly because people who do lean one way or in

a place now where they're paying attention and want to hear the right argument. i dodge think mayor bloomberg is going to persuade a lot of people in the close here, but for people leaning towards obama it is mobilizing. that is really the point at this phase in an election. i mean we talked about jay-z being on obama's side and to quote jay-z, we are in a love me or leave me alone moment in a mobilizing phase. >> do you think we're in that moment or did you just want to drop jay-z? >> i really do. what i mean is, i really don't believe endorsements, "new york times" endorsed barack obama, i don't think that people are waking up in the morning reading that and going now i'm going to vote. but i do think -- >> given -- >> wait. but just to finish the point i don't think a british policy journal, however influential in the media will move people in ohio. what i think happens is, the endorsement is -- >> [ inaudible ]. >> i think the endorsement does excite people who were leaning and so the best one that mitt romney has is in colorado got

john elway, a big famous football quarterback. i don't think that moves people in colorado who hadn't made up their minds but people who heard about it, gets them excited. that's what happens at this point today. >> i would say i think the bloomberg endorsement may have an extra effect because it comes after the christie imagery and in the closing phase, mitt romney was very much plugging the i'm going to go there and be able to be bipartisan in a way that barack obama hasn't been and he's doing this on a week you have chris christie hugging him and mayor bloomberg endorsing him. that gives the bloomberg endorsement a little bit more effect than it otherwise has. >> it does speak briefly a little bit to some of the businessmen, the rich folks who feel like obama's turned their back on him. there was that tone of like, oh, okay, yeah but we have to be with him. i don't like everything he's about done but on a couple things we have to be with him. >> significant things. he brought up the supreme court appointments that the next president will make and support for the health care law which is a plank of the president's first administration.

maybe only one. i don't know. we'll see november 7th. jonathan chaits, in terms of the prognostication in terms of these sur locates, the week that was, the fact that as frank mention judd chris christie -- you ask chris christie and colin powell and now mayor bloomberg when we talk about this stiff, yo stuff, does this move anybody or just a slap in the face for mitt romney? >> maybe a tiny bit. obama is kind of closing on a strong note. some of the stuff does signal the people that leads people who are just partisan democrats okay with obama, obama is not scary, he's not alienating, you know, people up for grabs a little bit, he's closing on a slightly strong note. i think frank bruni is right on the margins this can shape the tone of the last week of coverage a little bit. >> it has been an extraordinary week, extraordinary week. thank you to new york magazine's jonathan chaits as ari said, his writings have caught fire on the internet and everyone should

check out the endorsement. a programming note with the election days away, live this week, live this weekend, planned parenthood president cease seal richards and others among our guests do not miss the special edition of "now" saturday at the hour of 5:00 p.m. on the east coast. after the break, halloween may be over, but donald trump is still dressed up as a lunatic birther with money to burn. his year-round costume, next. ♪

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his choice will not be receiving $5 million. in fact, just the opposite, he spent millions of dollars in legal fees to keep his records secret. there's a total lack of transparency. some day those papers will come out and people will say, you know what, donald trump was right. this is a very, very sad day for the united states of america. >> four days after a natural disaster struck the eastern seaboard, crippling a global metropolis, gutting infrastructure, leaving more than 90 dead and millions without power, donald trump, a lunatic birther disguised as real estate mogul has issued a proclamation from the 856th floor of his luxury apartment where he nests atop the city recovering from destruction and one day his message is, people will say donald trump is right. this is a very sad day for the united states of america.

might i humbly offer a rejoineder. when offered $5 million for the services of trash collection intended to undermine the reputation of the president of the united states, no one took you up on it. no one. not even the craziest of the crazies. and that, mr. trump, was a very, very good day for the united states of america. coming up, will next wednesday mark a new post-partisan era or another big ugly partisan hangover? we will look at what this election portends, forgetting anything actually -- for getting anything actually done, next on "now." a winter wonderland doesn't just happen. it takes some doing. some coordinating. and a trip to the one place with the new ideas that help us pull it all together. from the things that hang and shine... ...to the things that sparkle and jingle.

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neighbors helping neighbors cope with tragedy, leaders of different parties working together to fix what's broken. we're all in this today together. we rise or fall as one nation. >> when i'm elected he'll work with republicans and democrats in congress, i'll meet with them regularly, i'll endeavor to find those good men and good women on both sides of the aisle who care more abouts the country than politics. >> all the talk of bipartisan on the trail these days you might think the country will see the dawn of agreement and good intentions come november 7th until you live in a battleground state and own a television. whoever is elected november 6th will wake up with an agonizing to-do list and not much time to do it. congress that industrious friendly place where bipartisan is always the de jour, reconvenes a week later, bush tax cuts expire december 31st, the viled sequester kicks in on

january 2nd, the debt ceiling wit need to be raised in mid-february and the current funding expires march 27th. bipartisan will certainly need be needed but -- certainly be needed but when will it come? >> romney is more of a flexible flopper than obama he has more influence over the intraj gent element in the ecase house republicans. he's likely to get big stuff down. or to paraphrase mitt's tiger blood will enable him to be more bipartisan because he doesn't believe in anything but winning. joining the panel, authors of the book "it's even worse than it looks" a great read and an important read, senior fellow at the brookings institution, thomas man and norman onstein a collar at the american enterprise institute. always a pleasure to have you on the show. >> great to be back, alex.

>> thomas or actually norm, why don't we start with you on this. in terms of the david brooks endorsement or making the case for a mitt romney being the guy to get stuff done, how likely do you think it is he can corral the herd of cats known as the republican caucus? >> to use george bush's phrase, the chances are slim to none and slim left the building. david's reasoning is just plain faulty. tom and i have been here 43 years immersed in the politics of congress. we've never seen it this dysfunctional. congressional republicans are at the root of it but those congressional republicans basically have stood by silently while mitt romney made this violent etch a sketch move not because they believe he will govern as a bipartisan moderate, but only to win and then he will adopt their agenda and if he doesn't, the idea that they will quietly go along, because as david said, they're going to

want their president to succeed despite the right wing primary challenges they face, is just frankly bizarre reasoning. >> that's a good point. and thomas, you know, "usa today" has a story about grover norquist talking about the stalemate. americans for tax reform president grover norquist whose anti-tax oath has been signed by almost every republican member of congress is girding for a fight if obama is re-elected. no compromise norquist said adding his prediction for an obama second term there's a stalemate. if romney is elected it's putting the ryan budget into law. we don't need a president we need a zombie who has functioning digits or can sign his name on a dotted line. let's pick two scenarios here. if the president is re-elected how does he deal with a tea party that sounds as it's going to be agreb gressive as ever and grover who is pushing for

hardlines no legislation. >> he beats them and the way to do that is to take advantage of the fiscal cliff. let it slide a bit, to create a new status quo in which republicans have an incentive to pass affirmative legislation that the president will sign into law, at the same time, there are a group of more problem solving republicans in the senate who don't want to spend another four years simply in opposition and with some members of the business community, not the chamber of commerce, but the larger companies, greatly concerned about this, i think grover's pledge is on its death bed if obama is elected, but if romney is elected, they will be

reinforced that they pursued the right strategy of absolute opposition of no new taxes and further tax cuts and romney will have little influence over his own party. >> that's a pretty strong statement from thomas man. the grover nors quist pledge is on its death bed if obama gets re-elected i think liberals all over the world just at least a collective -- released a flock of doves into the air. karen, what do you make of that? in terms of how president obama negotiates a senate where he has a slim majority but a house that is still dominated by republicans? >> i think he's right. here's the dirty secret in washington. most of the moderate not crazy republicans, really are sick of the tea party. they get the fact that they have been dragged down, their numbers in terms of a party, has been dragged down by the tea party. that the obstruction is not working. they were close to getting a

deal and who was it, eric cantor and the tea partiers that made it not happen. looks like michelle bachmann and a couple other key tea partiers are on their way out the door -- i had to do it. >> i really wanted to do that. >> michele bachmann out the door. >> that sets the table for compromising. that's part of what president obama and his campaign have talked about when they say the results of the election to some degree will give the conditions for which they think there will be a better opportunity to negotiate where they can and push it through where they can't. >> norm, we probably have to wrap it up here. i do want to get -- we talk on this show a lot of prognostication about what happens to the republican party if, in fact, mitt romney is defeated. the collective session on the psychiatrist's couch. do you think that the tea party ends up being the dominant voice of the conservative movement? do you think there's a chance that centrist elements will have more powerful voices in the coming years? >> i think we're already seeing rush limbaugh and others, use the tea party as a catch-all, trying to frame a narrative if

romney loses. and that narrative is going to be there we did it again, we picked another moderate, he couldn't talk the way we wanted him to talk, and we need to go back and get a pure voice. and i suspect that paul ryan may take that same frame. but i think if he loses, the republicans lose seats in the house, you're going to see some rethinking. it's going to take a long time, though, because the fact is, the way the primary and caucus processes work in that party, the extreme wing and they're not conservatives as you have said many times, they're radicals, will continue to dominate in a fashion that will take them years i think to get out of. >> well, it's a long road, my friends, and as a guide book may i suggest to everyone in america pick up a copy of your book. thank you again, to thomas man and norm ornstein authors of "it's even worse than it looks." republicans including mitt romney have refused to let science to get in the way of politics but the obama administration hasn't been out

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republicans including mitt before sandy hit new york shores governor cuomo requested federal assistance from fema but new york city mayor michael bloomberg declined. >> president obama asked craig fugate to -- from fema to call me earlier in the day and offer any help. i assured him we had we thinker control but we appreciate the effort. >> we'll discuss this and more when chris hayes joins the panel for a segment we call up now. where others fail, droid powers through.

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president obama prompted to begin -- promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans. and to heal the planets. my promise is to help you and your family. >> mitt romney may find climate change a source of hilarity, but he wasn't laughing yesterday when new york city mayor michael bloomberg shocked the political world endorsing his rival specifically citing climate change as the issue that tipped the scales in president obama's favor. quote, in the past he romney has also taken positions on immigration, illegal guns, abortion and health care but he's reversed course on all of them.

on a day that many along the east coast were still reeling from the storm, homes damaged or destroyed left in the dark without power and facing gas shortages. bloomberg noted moderate mitt believed in tackling climate change before severely conservative mitt took his place. one sees climate change as a problem that threatens our planet and one does not. i want our president to place scientific evidence above politics. his endorsement marks an endorsement that has come up in this cycle. [ inaudible ]. but the issue may be starting to break through. regardless of whether they want to or not, case in point, romney's audience at a virginia rally yesterday. >> what about climate? that's what caused this monster storm? >> usa! usa!

>> not sure if they're laughing or booing there. here is msnbc's chris hayes, host of up, for a segment we call up now. chris, i would like to keep that romney rnc speech on loop. >> yeah. >> the roars of laughter when he suggests that maybe we should tackle rising sea levels especially -- i actually think that's more of a damming piece of sound than the fee had ma comments. >> can you imagine a democratic president making a joke about like my republican opponent says he's going to destroy al qaeda. i'm going to look out for you and your family and then -- and then an al qaeda attack happened a few weeks after that. think about what the electoral fortunes of that hypothetical democrat would be. >> but it speaks to an incredibly craft attitude towards climate science and

climate change. at one point there were photos of newt gingrich and nancy pelosi on a couch talking about this. it has become -- it has become worse than political kryptonite, it's [ inaudible ] to the republican party to talk about this in any way. >> they've folded both because there are trillions of dollars at stake from the fossil fuel industry and because there is this sealed little bubble in which they exist in which they tell their base that this is a conspiracy and so i mean, you talk about it on tv and tweet about it and legions of people who god bless them in total good faith have been told by people they trust that this is a big conspiracy. >> and they tell people that when it's like 80 in october, right. no such thing as climate change. you're imagining it. i'm in shorts in october when i used to be in pants and a sweater. something going on. >> we've had two once in 100 year storms in two years and sitting in new york city, bastion of liberal thought not

prone to believing in coke brother conspiracy theories around science and no concessions have been made to the rising tides, sea levels and storm surges. we see that based on what's happening to the city today. >> it's a great point and sort of goes from sal lin ski had rules for radicals and right wingers rules for rhetoric. one of the rules is, if somebody terrible happens that so clearly demonstrates the need for reform whether progressive reform or any kind of regulatory system what we're told is, to acknowledge that reality is to politicize it. that happens in the gun tragedies, it happens these climate issues, it happens on race issues. you're politicizing the fact that in the trayvon martin case there's all these allegations. politicizing the storm. we're doing what we always do. when we see massive problems that threaten our citizens we want to deal with them. >> there is nothing more political than disaster. in fact, i've been reading -- buried in a long literature of this from the history of the

chicago fire, san francisco earthquake to katrina, when you take the underpinnings of society and strip it bare, when you take out the things that are the linchpin of how people interact and cooperate with each other, that is when you reduce the power relations to the most raw. nothing more political than the moments of disaster because it lays bare who has power in a society and who doesn't. >> just the fact, also one of the things that government does, one of the things government must do, is help protect us from the things we can't protect ourselves from. when we have a disaster, fire, a hurricane, you have to ask the question is government doing all it can do to insulate us from this and if government or people out there are denying climate change and some of these things may be related to that, that's a pretty big dereliction of duty. >> rick perry did pray for rain during fires that burned in texas through most of the year. we didn't get to talk about the president and what he might do if he's re-elected. >> people should watch "up" tomorrow. >> that's what my tease was. teeing it up for you.

watch "up" where all your questions will be answered as usual. >> of course. >> at 8:00 a.m. every saturday and sunday. >> wow. >> that's called a plug. >> is that an endorsement. >> thank you, my panel. that is all for now. see you back here tomorrow for a special edition of "now" at 5:00 p.m. eastern, 2:00 p.m. pacific. >> weekend girlfriend. >> thank you. i'm joined by planned parenthood president, arizona senate candidate, jonathan capehart and many more. until then find us at facebook.com/now with alex. "andrea mitchell reports" is next. ♪

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